The ZIMBABWE Situation
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Poll
talk stokes tension in Zim
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by James Mombe Tuesday 14 June
2011
JOHANNESBURG – Zimbabwe’s political situation is
increasingly turning
volatile amid talk of elections to choose a new
government to replace the
ruling coalition that has kept the country
relatively stable over the past
two years, a human rights group has
said.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said the ZANU PF party of
President Robert
Mugabe and the MDC of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have
both shifted
into campaign mode, sending political temperatures soaring in a
country
where every major vote over the past decade has been accompanied by
violence
and gross human rights abuses.
“Political tensions have been
heightened throughout the country as the
country’s political leadership from
mainly ZANU (PF) and the MDC-T have
already started preparing for the
holding of elections,” the NGO said in its
latest report on political
violence and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
The report that was
released at the weekend and made available to ZimOnline
on Monday covers
cases of politically motivated violence and rights abuses
in the month of
April.
The group that regularly monitors violence in Zimbabwe said cases
of
violence had shown welcome signs of declining in the month of April to
977
down from 1188 in March.
The ZPP report comes as the regional
SADC bloc that pressured Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to form a unity government in
February 2009 to end a dangerous
political stalemate after disputed
elections the previous year, on Sunday
urged the two rivals to speed up
implementation of democratic reforms
envisaged under their power-sharing
pact.
The political pact officially known as the global political
agreement or GPA
calls for the adoption of a new and democratic constitution
that should lead
to peaceful, free and fair elections to choose a new
government to replace
the coalition.
SADC leaders, who met in
Johannesburg, South Africa deferred discussions on
an elections roadmap or
charter for Zimbabwean to August. Under the proposed
roadmap Zimbabwe should
hold polls only after adoption of a new constitution
and implementation of
other key reforms to ensure smooth transfer of power
to winners.
But
the ZPP report painted a deteriorating situation on the ground, while
accusing some senior political leaders such as Members of Parliament (MP)
especially from ZANU (PF) of stoking up hatred and intolerance by urging
their followers to expel supporters of rival parties from their
constituencies.
The group also condemned involvement of the
pro-Mugabe police and the army
in acts of violence and intimidation against
MDC supporters.
In one of several cases cited by the ZPP where a senior
politician is
accused of encouraging intolerance, ZANU (PF) legislator
Jabulani Mangena is
said to have gone around his rural Mberengwa North
constituency telling
villagers that no other political party was allowed in
the area.
“Mberengwa North MP Jabulani Mangena has been accused of
addressing
political rallies where he openly declares that there should be
no other
political party in his area,” the ZPP said. “As a result his
supporters have
not been entertaining any political parties to campaign in
the area.”
The NGO also lamented what it described as a high military
presence in the
Midlands province where Mberengwa lies and in other
provinces such as
Mashonaland East.
There is no date set yet for
Zimbabwe’s next elections. However Mugabe and
his ZANU (PF) party are
pushing for elections soon after adoption of a new
constitution, a situation
that could see the country going to polls either
by the end of the year or
early 2012.
But Tsvangirai – the favourite to win the next presidential
vote but without
any guarantee Mugabe’s allies in the military will allow
him to takeover
power – has said polls should not be held this year even
after adoption of a
new constitution.
The former opposition chief
says a new constitution and several proposed
electoral reforms would need to
be given time to take root to ensure any
future vote is free and fair. --
ZimOnline
Zuma
outwits Mugabe
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Stanley Gama in South Africa
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
18:32
JOHANNESBURG - Details have emerged about how Zimbabwe’s
facilitator-in-chief President Jacob Zuma of South Africa stared and dressed
down President Robert Mugabe during Sunday’s Sadc summit
here.
This followed Mugabe’s attempt to overturn resolutions from the
Livingstone
troika meeting, which criticised the octogenarian leader and his
Zanu PF
party for slowing down regional efforts to normalise politics in
Zimbabwe.
So bad was the confrontation that Zuma at one point told Mugabe
bluntly that
he “did not manufacture the (Livingstone) report” after
Zimbabwe’s
octogenarian leader took issue with both the deliberations and
outcome of
the Zambia meeting, the Daily News can authoritatively
reveal.
Zuma went on to say that he had put together the report following
extensive
consultations by the facilitators with Zimbabwe’s political Zuma
outwits
Mugabe at Sadc summit parties, including Zanu
PF.
Surprisingly, Zanu PF delegates at the summit attempted, but failed
miserably, to convince anyone who cared to listen to them at the end of the
gathering that the Livingstone report had been thrown out and had not been
adopted by Sadc.
This prompted a top South African government
official to warn some of Zanu
PF’s officials against spreading such
“malicious” rumours.
Zanu PF had hatched a plan, ahead of the summit, to
force a reversal of the
hard-hitting Livingstone report, which savaged
Mugabe and Zanu PF for
violations of the Global Political Agreement
(GPA).
The Daily News has been told of how Mugabe made a 45-minute
presentation at
the Johannesburg summit in which he attacked the Livingstone
report, saying
proper procedures were not followed, claiming further that
the facilitator’s
report which led to the troika communiqué contained
inaccuracies.
Both Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC-N leader
Welshman Ncube’s
presentations lasted a few minutes as they both had no
problem with the
Livingstone report.
After Mugabe’s presentation,
Zuma is said to have firmly told Mugabe off and
dismissed his views that
Zuma had manipulated the report, highly-placed
regional diplomats who
attended the meeting said.
“It was a big showdown considering that these
were presidents involved.
Mugabe started by thanking Zuma for his
facilitation role but attacked the
Livingstone report claiming it was packed
with fabrications. Mugabe said the
whole report was about MDC requests and
complaints and claimed his Zanu PF
party was never given a chance to put
across their views.
“Mugabe alleged that procedurally, he was supposed to
be given the report
before it went to the troika, but this was shot down by
Sadc chairman
President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who insisted that it was a
report for the
troika.
“Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salomao also
indirectly attacked Mugabe when
he stood up and said contrary to what the
Zimbabwean leader had said, all
the political parties had been given the
report after Zanu PF complained,”
the source said.
MDC secretary for
international relations Jameson Timba confirmed that
Tsvangirai had received
the report at the same time as Mugabe.
However, Zuma was reportedly not
happy with Mugabe’s allegations that he and
his team had fabricated the
report and is said to have hit back at the
87-year-old Zanu PF
leader.
“President Zuma was visibly agitated but remained calm and firm
in his
response. He said there was no way he could have cooked up the report
and
said he had compiled the report using facts gathered by his team and
from
the political parties.
“President Zuma also said he had
consulted other Sadc leaders on the
Zimbabwe issue and they were all in
agreement. He reminded Mugabe that he
wanted to help solve the political
crisis in Zimbabwe and wanted the best
for Zimbabwe.
“After Zuma’s
powerful rebuttal, there was consensus that the Livingstone
report had to be
adopted, even though softened the language in the
communiqué to avoid
embarrassing Mugabe further.
“But whatever the case, the Livingstone
report was adopted and is part of
the Sadc report no matter the amount of
propaganda around it coming from
Zimbabwe,” another diplomat
said.
While Zanu PF propagandists claim that the term “noted” which was
used by
Sadc in their communiqué meant that the Livingstone report had not
been
adopted, Salomao dismissed this.
When asked what “noted” meant,
Salomao gave a firm response saying the
Livingstone report had not been
thrown out as was being peddled by Zanu PF.
“The meeting of the troika
summit in Livingstone was a meeting of an
institution of Sadc which is
charged to deal with political issues. When the
organ troika summit makes a
deliberation and issues a communiqué, those
deliberations are final. Let us
be clear and precise on that.
“What the summit did here was to note the
decisions of the organ troika
summit in Livingstone and no one has the power
or mandate to change what
organ troika summit deliberates. It means the same
thing as being adopted
because it is a Sadc document.
“Sadc received
a report from the mediator indicating progress that was made
by stakeholders
in Zimbabwe on the process leading towards elections in
Zimbabwe. That is
why after the submission made by the principals, summit
commended and
encouraged them to continue to work together based on the road
map."
“They must prepare the draft which has to be finalised by
themselves and
when we meet in Luanda in August, it needs to have been
concluded,” Salomao
said.
After the summit, Mugabe is said to have
spoken to Zuma and this was
interpreted by diplomats as another of his many
recent attempts to ease
tensions between the two.
A South African
diplomat said tensions between the two men were being
exacerbated by a group
of Zanu PF hardliners, among them serial political
turn-coat Jonathan Moyo,
who had been abusing Zuma personally, amid
intra-Zanu PF allegations that
this group was deliberately doing this to
cause problems for
Mugabe.
One area which Mugabe furiously resisted was security sector
reform,
although Salomao explained that this too was part of the roadmap
which had
to be completed before August.
Among the Johannesburg
resolutions, Sadc will, to confirm that the
Livingstone resolutions are
binding, also send three monitors from the
troika countries who will help
Jomic in monitoring progress on the political
situation in
Zimbabwe.
This was one of the key Livingstone Summit recommendations
which will be
implemented with immediate effect.
SADC
summit: Sanctions remain MDC's burden
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
14/06/2011 00:00:00
by Lloyd
Msipa
LAST weekend’s SADC summit to discuss the political impasse in
Zimbabwe held
in Sandton, South Africa, has come and gone. The three
political parties in
the Global Political Agreement went to the summit with
different demands and
expectations.
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC-T,
with the backing of a host of
western-funded NGOs that included the Crisis
Coalition, descended on Sandton
to demand, firstly, the endorsement of the
SADC Organ Troika resolutions
held in Livingstone, Zambia, in
March.
Secondly, they were demanding that the full SADC summit of heads
of states
and government include in its deliberations the issue of “security
sector
reforms” and, thirdly, a definitive timeline for elections in
Zimbabwe
beyond 2011.
On the issue of the security sector reform, we
all know what happened to
that. Besides it being not an issue not covered in
the GPA agreement, it
seemed overtly ambitious for the Tsvangirai outfit to
think for a minute
that the SADC summit would entertain such preposterous
demands. The issue of
the security sector is a national security matter way
beyond the mandate of
SADC. The matter is so sensitive that it raises
sovereignty issues.
On the first issue, it is not a secret that the
resolution of the SADC Organ
Troika of March 2011 in Livingstone was based
on the inaccuracies of a
report presented to it by the Morgan Tsvangirai
MDC-T, which among other
things misled the organ to believe that Zimbabwe
was under some kind of
military rule and that the Zimbabwe government was no
longer in charge. This
of course resulted in a flawed communiqué from the
Organ Troika.
Zanu PF also had its own set of demands. Notably, the party
pointed out to
the SADC leaders the ambit of the Global Political Agreement
mandate when it
came to issues that include the demands for security sector
reforms. This
was never part of the Global Political
Agreement.
Secondly, Zanu PF was seeking guidance from SADC with regard
to the issue of
elections. This requirement for guidance was premised on the
basis that the
Global Political Agreement that was originally agreed to last
for 24 months
had since expired and hence according to the agreement,
elections were now
overdue.
And thirdly, and most importantly, the
Livingstone troika summit resolution
had deliberately written out the issue
of the removal of sanctions on
Zimbabwe. It was this resolution that did not
mention sanctions as an
outstanding issue to be fulfilled by the MDC-T
outfit that Tsvangirai
clamoured for adoption and endorsement.
It is
in this context and background that the three principals of the GPA
went to
the summit. In the SADC Communiqué issued on June 12, 2011, the
issue of the
SADC Troika communiqué, how it was received by the full SADC
summit of heads
of state and governments, has received multiple
interpretations. In
particular, item 22 in the resolution has been subject
to
misinterpretation:
22. Summit noted the decisions of the Organ Troika Summit
held in
Livingstone, Zambia in March 2011.
In desperation, there are
those from the Tsvangirai camp who got so
frustrated by the failure of the
full SADC summit of heads of States and
governments to endorse the
Livingstone summit resolutions that they have now
resorted to redefining
words to suit their own ends.
Listening to one online pirate radio
station, some “political analysts”
being interviewed were at pains trying to
equate or run parallels between
the word ‘noted’ with ‘endorsed’. Any
Zimbabwe Junior Certificate student
will easily tell you the difference
between the words, noted and endorsed. A
standard dictionary will tell you
that when something is said to have been
noted, it merely means something
that is ‘worthy of notice, something worthy
of attention, nothing
substantive’.
When you endorse something it means you ‘support’ that
thing. An endorsement
is an act of approval. It is a qualifying comment.
Often when something is
endorsed, a signature is required. Now, for someone
to say with no
equivocation that the SADC summit endorsed the Livingstone
resolutions by
using the word ‘noted’ is not only foolish but thoroughly
irresponsible.
The bottom line is that the SADC summit heads of state and
governments saw
through the shenanigans of the Tsvangirai outfit at
Livingstone. In
particular, President Jacob Zuma saw through the games
played by the MDC-T
outfit. The fact that he requested to meet President
Robert Mugabe a day
before the SADC summit is instructive.
Another
issue that seems to have either escaped or has been ignored by the
pirate
radio stations is the issue of the sanctions. This had been written
out of
the Livingstone troika resolution of March 2011. The SADC summit of
the head
of states and government brought it back in under points 29-31.
29.
Summit recalled its decision taken during the Extraordinary Summit in
Windhoek, Namibia in August 2010, mandating the Chairperson of SADC, the
Chairperson of the Organ, SADC Facilitator for the Zimbabwe Political
Dialogue assisted by the Secretariat to undertake the mission to the United
Kingdom, United States of America and the European Union.
30. Summit
received a Report on the mission and noted its recommendations.
31. Summit
committed to continue dialogue with the western powers on the
removal of
sanctions against Zimbabwe.
This alone is a major victory for Zanu PF in
that the MDC-T has been asked,
working together with SADC, to ensure that
they fulfill their part under the
GPA agreement. Most importantly, to make
sure that they engage with their
western sponsors to have the sanctions
lifted if Zimbabwe is to have free
and fair elections. If the sanctions are
lifted, the issue of the timeline
for elections will no longer be of any
significance.
So, however you look or read the June 12 SADC summit
resolutions, the MDC-T
party remains the beast of burden. The burden they
have is to make sure the
sanctions go before the next election, failure
which they would have failed
or neglected to discharge their responsibility
towards the Global Political
Agreement.
Lloyd Msipa writes from the
United Kingdom. He can be contacted at
lmsipalaw@gmail.com
COPAC
temporarily halts drafting of new constitution
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
14
June 2011
Any hopes of Zimbabwe having a referendum by September this
year have been
dashed, following COPAC’s decision to temporarily halt the
drafting of a new
constitution.
Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa told
us the delays in securing the $1.8
million to complete the exercise have
forced COPAC to scale down its
operations. This includes the relocation of
its secretariat back to their
Milton Park offices from the Harare
International Conference Centre, where
they’ve been based for the last two
months.
‘While the thematic committee stage, which was tasked with
putting data into
respective thematic sections is now complete, there were
expectations the
exercise would move straight to the next phase.
‘The
next stage involves compiling a draft for the new constitution but lack
of
funds has forced COPAC to ask delegates to check out of their hotels,’
Muchemwa said.
Rapporteurs, researchers and analysts were paid for
their services last week
Friday but are still owed $500 each. Muchemwa said
that in order to avoid
accumulating huge bills from hotels while the
delegates were virtually doing
nothing, COPAC thought it was wise to send
them home.
A timetable released by COPAC in January this year envisaged
that if all
went well the country could go for a referendum in
September.
But Muchemwa said; ‘With all these delays, I think it’s
becoming
increasingly clear that the constitution wont be ready by September
or even
the end of this year.’
Parties in the Global Political
Agreement were hopeful the writing of the
constitution would be completed
before the end of the year, with elections
expected in the first quarter of
2012. However, ZANU PF was pushing for a
poll even without the adoption of a
new constitution. But this move was
crushed by the SADC summit held in
Johannesburg on Sunday, at which the
parties were urged to hold elections
only after the adoption of a new
constitution.
ZANU PF infiltration of Apostolic churches
exposed on video
By Lance Guma 14
June 2011
Shocking video
footage has exposed how ZANU PF has infiltrated Apostolic Churches countrywide
and is using compromised preachers to campaign for Mugabe and ZANU PF ahead of
national elections.
http://www.youtube.com/v/5ZrkUicOu74
The footage shows how the Vadzidzi Va Jesu branch of
the Apostolic Christian Church has emerged as a vocal supporter of ZANU PF.
Sermons from Rushinga, Epworth and Mudzi |
North show how the
preachers are spreading political hate messages and propping up Mugabe’s
regime.
In Rushinga the preacher was filmed saying; “Gabriel is supreme;
he carries the blood of Jesus. So we can’t throw him away. In this party we
always say forward with R.G Mugabe and you also agree, Isn’t that so? Who is
Gabriel? Isn’t he the President? For him to be named Gabriel, were there no
other names to give him? He is the chosen one.”
The preacher rumbles on
with his sermon saying even Mbuya Nehanda, the spirit medium behind the First
Chimurenga, ordained Mugabe as somebody suitable to lead Zimbabwe. “We shouldn’t
just pick anything and vote for it to be the President of our country. You
shouldn’t agree to such things,” the combative preacher tells a visibly subdued
and intimidated congregation seated on the ground.
In Epworth, another
preacher is captured on film asking his congregation which church has the
largest number of ZANU PF chairpersons? The congregation, respond by saying
“here’ meaning the place where they are holding the service. The preacher then
tells them; “As we are gathered here, we all belong to the party (ZANU PF). And
the football teams are also part of the party.
The preacher then raises
his voice to chant ZANU PF slogans. “Forward with ZANU PF,” he says to which the
congregation say “Forward.” He follows that up with “Forward with our land. Down
with those who do not like it.” The congregation are forced to re-affirm this
and also chant ‘down with them.”
In Mudzi North another preacher is
filmed with a more grandiose take on things. He leads his followers in singing,
“Gabriel (Mugabe) is going to rule the whole of Africa.” In the actual sermon,
he says; “We are sorry for some of our fellow black colleagues who meet and work
with white people. It’s time now when the choice is either we lose the country
or we hold onto it.” These sorts of sermons are being replicated across the
country by several ‘fake prophets’ in the pay of ZANU PF.
The growing
influence of the Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe has seen ZANU PF trying to
harvest more followers from there. The three major Sects are reported to command
close to 5 million followers within Zimbabwe alone. Of the three, the African
Apostolic Church has an estimated 2.5 million members, Johanne Marange 1.5
million and the Johanne Masowe WeChishanu around 1 million
followers.
Nothing demonstrated ZANU PF’s strategy better than the fact
that Mugabe pardoned convicted serial rapist, Madzibaba Godfrey Nzira. In 2003
Nzira, a self-proclaimed prophet, was jailed for 32 years, later reduced to 20
years, on seven counts of rape and one count of indecent assault. Nzira in the
past has claimed Mugabe was a “divinely appointed king of Zimbabwe and no man
should dare challenge his office.”
Nzira’s bootlicking paid off as he
walked out of prison a free man this year, courtesy of a presidential pardon.
The Justice Ministry attempted to justify the early release, saying it was made
on compassionate grounds owing to Nzira’s ill health. However Nzira has shown
that he is fit enough to go on a tour drumming up support for Mugabe. He even
celebrated his early release by hosting a week long party that was also attended
by the Attorney General Johannes Tomana.
In May this year, members of
the Johanne Marange Apostolic sect, invaded one of the biggest dairy farms in
Chipinge and ordered the farmer to leave within 24 hours. Members of the sect,
together with a mob of ZANU PF youths, stormed Spillemeer Farm and declared they
had taken over. The farm’s owner Francois Kotze said the church members were
using ZANU PF youths to intimidate him and they also forcibly grabbed over 100
cattle from him.
A report by the Daily News, quoting an official from the
Commercial Farmers Union, said; “The Apostolic faith members ordered Kotze to
remove a drove of pigs claiming the presence of the animals ran contrary to
their religious beliefs. They however, demanded that he slaughter several sheep
to feed them. They declared the cattle as theirs. They are now milking the
cattle themselves,” the report said. The police refused to intervene in the
matter, claiming it was political.
As the video evidence on our website
shows, ZANU PF is trying to build up an alliance with as many of these
influential Apostolic Church sects as possible, allowing them to join in the
pillaging by the party, in return for political support during the
elections.
Every Tuesday SW Radio Africa investigates unsolved and
deliberately ignored cases of political violence, torture, murder and other
forms of abuse, by people in positions of authority. The series is receiving
tremendous public support and information and the coming weeks are set for some
explosive exposures.
See transcript
|
MDC-T
blasts delaying tactics in police death trial
http://www.swradioafrica.com
14 June 2011
The
MDC-T has condemned the continued postponement of a bail application
hearing
for its supporters as a delaying tactic by the state.
24 MDC supporters
have been arrested since police inspector Petros Mutedza
was killed in Glen
View, Harare last month. Police allege Mutedza was killed
by MDC-T
supporters. The party denies this, saying he was killed after a
fight broke
out with drinkers at a shopping centre in Glen View and that the
allegations
are part of a ploy to portray the MDC as a violent party.
Obert Gutu, the
MDC-T’s Harare Province Secretary for Information and
Publicity, says so far
the bail application hearing has been moved four
times, with the state
requesting the postponements for various reasons.
The court hearing was
delayed again on Tuesday, after the prosecutor asked
to be excused, saying
he had to be at the Supreme Court. Instead of starting
on Tuesday morning,
the hearing eventually began mid-afternoon and will
continue on Wednesday
morning.
The bail application is for 20 supporters. The other three
appeared in court
on Monday and were remanded in custody to 17th June.
Another supporter,
councillor Warship Dumba who was arrested on Sunday, is
still in police
custody.
Gweru
court defends illegal invasion of SA farmer’s land
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
14
June 2011
A Gweru court has defended the illegal and often violent
invasion of a
Somabhula farm, after the farmer was on Tuesday found guilty
of refusing to
give up his land.
87 year old Phillip Hapelt, a South
African citizen, was forced to flee his
farm earlier this year and was then
charged for refusing to voluntarily give
up his land. This is despite
numerous other court orders that have defended
his rights to his
farm.
Phillip and his wife Ellen have for the past two years faced
serious threats
from local ZANU PF MP Jabulani Mangena, who has led a
campaign of
harassment, vandalism and violence against the farmers. The
couple was
brutally beaten in late 2009 when Mangena first started trying to
get them
to leave. Mangena meanwhile is said to have acquired at least three
other
farms in the countrywide land grab campaign.
Many years ago the
Hapelts voluntarily gave up the majority of their land
for the sake of
‘reform’, under an agreement that allowed them to remain on
their homestead
with a small portion of farming land. They have two court
orders that
entitle them to live on this farm, without fear of invasion or
persecution,
but they were forced to seek two successive evictions orders in
an effort to
get Mangena’s men off their land last year. Mangena has openly
disregarded
the rulings of the courts and has previously threatened the
Hapelts with
violence. In March the couple fled the property after a
standoff with a mob
of land invaders threatened to turn violent.
Their fight has now come to
an end after a Gweru court on Tuesday found
Phillip guilty of not
voluntarily leaving his property. He was fined US$100.
Meanwhile there
has been no reaction from the South African authorities on
this illegal
treatment of one of their citizens, despite Zim and South
Africa both
signing an investment protection agreement.
South Africa’s silence also
comes as the Southern African leadership bloc
has dissolved the region’s
human rights Tribunal, which ruled in 2008 that
the Zim land grab exercise
was unlawful. Instead of protecting human rights,
Southern African leaders
have chosen to silence this court, in a move
described as a “regressive” and
a serious threat to the region’s future.
Zanu
PF informers infiltrate MDC
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Pindai Dube
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
14:09
BULAWAYO - Some activists holding positions in MDC structures
are on the
payroll of Zanu PF and feared state security agency, the Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO), a senior party member has
confirmed.
Citing results of an internal investigation, Abednico
Bhebhe, the MDC
national deputy organising secretary told the Daily News
that his party was
mainly infiltrated during internal elections to prepare
for a congress held
in April.
“We have an ongoing investigation and I
can confirm that state agents and
Zanu PF informers infiltrated our party
ahead of the congress. We have
evidence that some of our members are on the
payroll of the CIO,” Bhebhe
said.
He added: “We have compiled a list
of them and they are set to be hauled for
disciplinary hearing and be
suspended pending dismissal from the party.”
Zanu PF Bulawayo
spokesperson Michael Sikhosana on Friday dismissed
allegations that his
party is deploying spies to infiltrate the MDC.
"Arrest
machemedze," Hoey
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Ray Matikinye, Assistant Editor
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
13:14
HARARE - A British paper has revealed that ex-Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) officer Phillip Machemedze, who won United
Kingdom (UK)
asylum on the grounds that he was endangered if deported, was
still on the
dreaded spy agency’s pay roll until
recently.
Justice Archer gave Machemedze a reprieve, saying if
chucked out of Britain
he faced “the highly likely prospect of torture and
execution without
trial.”
But former UK Member of Parliament Kate
Hoey is pressuring the Home Office
to arrest the confessed
killer.
According to the Daily Mail, Machemedze — also known as ‘Kim’ —
has
repeatedly lied to the authorities ever since arriving in Britain 11
years
ago, again on the pretext that he was disgusted and disillusioned by
working
for the CIO.
“Far from repenting and turning his back on his
brutal secret work for
Mugabe, he has, in fact, remained in the employment
of Zimbabwe’s security
services since entering Britain on a six-month
tourist visa in 2000.”
Intelligence records passed to the Mail show that
Machemedze has been paid
thousands of pounds by Mugabe’s intelligence
network to identify the regime’s
enemies living among Britain’s 200
000-strong Zimbabwean community. He has
even had £300 monthly school fees
for his two children left in Zimbabwe paid
out of CIO coffers.
The
paper also said one senior member of Mugabe’s security apparatus alleged
this week that Machemedze had been on the official CIO payroll until just a
few weeks ago, when his handlers in Harare first learned he had revealed
details of their operation in the course of his asylum hearings.
The
Mail was shown documents — including birth certificates and secret
internal
communiqués about Machemedze — which shows that he was still
working for the
CIO until April.
One document titled: “Warning of Blacklisted Security
Source’ and circulated
to all police and intelligence units in Zimbabwe
states that all officers
must destroy all files relating to ‘‘officer number
002676 Chief Inspector
Phillip Machemedze’’. This was to erase all records
of his involvement in
torture and murderous activities.
In trying to
disown Machemedze, the state media countered initial
revelations about
Machemedze’s CIO links saying he merely worked as a clerk
in the Ministry of
Public Construction.
In the UK, he worked for a Bristol clinic for people
with mental disorders
and addictions. Using false papers, he was allowed to
stay in the UK.
Although lowly-paid, he threw lavish parties and on one
of his birthdays he
feted 100 guests with food and drink. He was also a
regular at bars and
clubs for African immigrants, the paper
claimed.
“Wherever you went, Kim would turn up,” one of his former
associates said.
“He was at every party, but he acted like royalty and often
walked straight
in without paying at nightclubs. Everyone knows
him.”
A Zimbabwean exile also revealed that ‘‘friends’’ of Machemedze
have
threatened anyone with a beating or worse if they speak out about his
life
here or in Africa.
“If he can’t be sent back, he should be tried
for murder here,” they were
quoted as saying.
One of Machemedze’s
victims said she tested positive for HIV after
Machemedze and three of his
colleagues repeatedly gang-raped her in January
2000, just two months before
he arrived in Britain.
“I made a police report — I will always remember
the official police report
number, OB 3171/00. But nothing happened.
Nothing.”
Just recently, Hoey ratcheted up pressure on the Home Office to
act on
Machemedze, saying she knew of other UK asylum seekers with suspected
CIO
links.
“Machemedze is clearly a dangerous man. He poses a risk to
both Zimbabweans
in the UK in particular and to the British public in
general,” she says.
“I call on the police to arrest him on the grounds
that torture is an
offence of universal jurisdiction under international
law, and that his
actions wherever they were perpetrated are liable to
prosecution in the UK.
The Home Secretary should intervene to make sure this
happens,” she added. —
With Daily Mail
Petulant
Robert Mugabe's ministers refusing to report to Tsvangirai
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
14/06/2011
14:23:00 Daily News
HARARE – Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says
Zanu PF ministers are
refusing to report to him as mandated by the Global
Political Agreement
(GPA), a situation that has collapsed many operations of
the coalition
government.
Tsvangirai said this in his weekly Prime
Minister’s newsletter, a
publication that acts as his official mouth piece.
The former trade
unionist, who is in an awkward coalition with long-time
rival President
Robert Mugabe, says Zanu PF ministers such as Webster Shamu
were
sidestepping him despite his role as the chief overseer of government
policy.
“We have seen a distinct division between the two parties
where certain
ministries are no longer accountable to the collective. They
are only
accountable to the president. So you can see that there is growing
discord
and fissures within the government and these are causing the
government to
be dysfunctional,” said Tsvangirai.
Shamu is the
Minister of Information and Publicity and has resisted
implementation of
media reforms agreed to by Tsvangirai and Mugabe.
“This is against the
GPA and the law. The Constitution says specifically
that all ministers are
supposed to be supervised by the prime minister but
that is in theory. In
practice people have maintained their separate ways,”
said
Tsvangirai.
The GPA spells out that the prime minister shall “oversee the
formulation of
government policies” and “shall ensure that the ministers
develop
appropriate implementation plans to give effect to the policies
decided by
cabinet: in this regard, the ministers will report to the prime
minister on
all issues relating to the implementation of such policies and
plans.”
The prime minister is the one who will regularly report to the
president and
parliament, according to the GPA, which forms the foundation
of the
coalition government. Tsvangirai painted a picture of a hugely
divided
cabinet where daggers were always drawn out at the expense of
service
delivery.
He said although his party was in a coalition with
Mugabe’s Zanu PF, the
parties had largely remained entrenched in party
politics and were
answerable more to party organs than government
structures.
“They have remained answerable to their separate leadership.
For instance,
the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity, in spite of
repeated calls
to the president to intervene in this ministry, nothing has
happened,” said
Tsvangirai with a hint of frustration.
“In spite of
repeated calls for President Mugabe to rein in some of the
rogue elements in
the military who have been pronouncing statements which
are
unconstitutional, he has not done so.
“It appears that people are either
in defiance or are being encouraged to
make those statements in order to sow
seeds of discord to the only
institution which has helped rescue this
country, which is the transitional
Government.”
Apart from the
Ministry of Information and Publicity, all the security
aligned ministries
such as Home Affairs, State Security Defence and Mines
have so far refused
to report to the premier but instead deal directly with
Mugabe. The
ministers concerned were not reachable when the Daily News
repeatedly tried
calling their mobile numbers.
Tsvangirai said the current status quo had
the potential to “plunge into
chaos” which would be detrimental to the
country. Tsvangirai also emphasised
that there were some in Zanu PF who
“believe they can claim continued hold
onto the State”. Tsvangirai said the
treatment of his party by the police
and recent attacks on the house of
Finance Minister Tendai Biti were
worrying.
“We have a situation here
where one half of Government is blatantly abusing
and harassing the other
half,” said Tsvangirai adding that the bombing of
Biti’s residence “is a
matter we are taking seriously and we will not let it
pass just like
that.”
University of Zimbabwe Political analyst, John Makumbe said the
premier’s
complaints were a sign of a government in paralysis.
“He is
correct to complain but that is the nature of the coalition
government. It
is effectively a parallel government. The MDC T ministers are
reporting to
Tsvangirai while Zanu PF Ministers are reporting to Mugabe and
I doubt that
the MDC N ministers are reporting to anyone,” said Makumbe.
“Effectively
we have two governments and it’s a government in paralysis.”
Daily News
Over 2
000 graduate nurses jobless
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Monday, 13 June 2011 23:04
By Peter
Matambanadzo
OVER 2 000 graduate nurses countrywide bonded by the
Government after
training remain jobless becau-se health institutions have
frozen
recruitment.
More than 500 nurses graduate from mission and
Government hospitals
annually.
Government has frozen about 400
nurses' and doctors' posts nation wide since
June last year.
The Ministry
of Health and Child Welfare said the Ministry of Finance had
unfrozen 205
posts for registered general nurses, 115 State certified
nurses, 17 primary
care nurses and 42 doctors.
According to records, 8 056 nurses are
employed throughout Zimbabwe against
an establishment of 7 688.
This is a
clear indication that all nurses who are graduating from nursing
schools
cannot be absorbed into available health institutions.
This has forced
the graduate nurses to petition the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare
demanding to be released from the bonds and be allowed to seek
employment
elsewhere.
Health and Child Welfare Deputy Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora
recently said
the Government was aware of the nurses' plight.
"We are
currently engaging the Ministry of Fina-nce to assist us. So we
should be
able to inform them of any latest developments soon," Dr
Mombeshora
said.
He said Government was "tirelessly" working towards addressing the
issue.
He could not disclose details of a meeting he had with Permanent
Secretary
Dr Gerald Gwinji on the matter.
The nurses' group
representative, Mr Norest Makanga, in a letter to the
ministry, said they
had raised concerns with the ministry on several
occasions with no
joy.
"We are qualified nurses since December 2010 and we have not been
employed
up to now. We are seeking your response to our issue. We went to
all
departments responsible for employment, that is human resources and
public
service who just say the posts are frozen due to lack of
finance.
"We approached the permanent secretary in the form of a written
letter
asking for our diplomas so that we seek employment elsewhere within
the
re-gion but all was in vain," Mr Makanga said.
He said they wanted
Government to respond to their plight and inform them
how they were going to
deal with the increasing number of jobless nurses.
"We understand we are
about 2 000 nurses countrywide who are qualified and
are yet to be employed.
When we reported to the various institutions that we
were assigned, we were
turned away as we were told that the posts have been
frozen due to lack of
funds," he said.
He said another problem was that when they enrolled at
the training schools,
they signed contracts that stated that they had been
bonded for three years
post-qualifying.
Nurses train for three years for
a registered general nurse's course.
"The idea of keeping us bonded is a
clear indication of us being employed by
your ministry. We need money to pay
rent, food, water and electricity bills,
pay school fees and even taking
care of our fami- lies.
"Most of us are parents and things are hard for us
without employment," he
said.
Zvimba
villagers bashed, missing
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
A pall of fear has fallen over Zvimba,
President Mugabe's rural home, after
Zanu (PF) thugs unleashed a fresh orgy
of violence.
13.06.1112:13pm 0 0
Martin
Ahead of elections
slated for next year, Mugabe’s supporters have
intensified a witch-hunt of
perceived opposition members.
Robert Mugabe Robert Mugabe
As regional
leaders met in South Africa over the weekend, soldiers and youth
militia
carried out a door-to-door purge of MDC supporters in the rural
area.
In the past week alone five people have reported being severely
beaten and
ordered to "surrender." Scores of villagers have fled into
hiding.
MDC supporters said the crackdown has been steadily escalating
since the MDC
congress and described witnessing a cavalcade of Mugabe
supporters stream
through the village carrying a coffin with Tsvangirai’s
name on it.
MDC supporters have been ordered to surrender all the regalia
they received
at the congress.
A district MDC official, who declined
to be named fearing reprisals, said
people were huddled inside a modest,
four-bedroom house in the area with
women and children sleeping in cramped
rooms, while men slept in the long
grass by the maize patch.
"Our
lives are in danger,” the district official said. “They want to attack
us."
A local general dealer, hiding bruises with thick make-up, told
The
Zimbabwean****** that 10 days ago a gang of youths from Zanu (PF) stoned
her
pick-up truck, looted her shop and beat her.
"They told me to
leave Zimbabwe and go to Britain," she said.
Human rights groups say
several people are on the run across the province,
with some being sought by
the Central Intelligence.
The district official said many were hiding
from the beatings, torture and
feared killings.
"Some of our members
have been abducted and taken to one of their 'Taliban
camps' where they were
tortured and told to surrender," he said.
"We have not committed any
crime; we are just working for democracy. In
those torture camps they do
inhuman things."
He vowed to return to Zvimba and get police to search
for the missing
"We are being hunted down. Anyone suspected of supporting
the MDC, it is
terrible," he said
"It is frightening. We don't know
when they will attack us again." – Chief
reporter
Fear
rises in SA as Zim deportations loom
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
14 June
2011
Fear is rising within South Africa’s community of Zimbabweans, amid
concerns
that a looming return to deportations will result in increased
harassment
and victimisation of Zim nationals.
The current moratorium
on forced returns of Zimbabweans will be lifted at
the end of July, marking
the end of the chaotic documentation endeavor
launched last year. That
process, which gave Zim nationals a chance to apply
for legal documentation
to remain in South Africa legally, has been marred
by chaos and it’s
understood that tens of thousands of people are still
waiting for their
documents.
Braam Hanekom from the refugee rights group PASSOP told SW
Radio Africa on
Tuesday that there is a sense of urgency among the
Zimbabwean community,
with the July 31st deadline looming. He explained how
“time does seem to be
running out,” adding that thousands of people still
don’t know their fate.
“We will be meeting with Home Affairs and seeing
if there is any way that
the process can be extended anymore, but I think
the leniency by South
Africa in extending this process before is really
running thin,” Hanekom
said.
There are warnings that South African
officials are considering embarking on
a ‘clean-up’ exercise targeting
illegal immigrants, when the moratorium is
lifted. According to a report by
South African based human rights lawyer
Nicole Whittaker, this ‘clean-up’
operation might result in documented
migrants, including asylum seekers,
being unlawfully arrested, detained and
possibly even deported from South
Africa.
“A pressing concern is that once the moratorium on the
deportation of
Zimbabweans ends on July 31 2011, the South African
authorities will round
up suspected ‘illegal foreigners’ en masse and detain
them for purposes of
deportation, without assessing individually who has a
right to be in South
Africa and who does not,” said Whittaker in her report,
titled: ‘Zimbabweans
in South Africa fear mass deportation: The aftermath of
the Zimbabwean
Documentation Process.’
Whittaker said this was due to
the flaws in the documentation process,
explaining how the exercise “was
plagued by difficulties such as excluding
many Zimbabweans from the process
and making them consequently vulnerable to
deportation.”
Bishop Paul
Verryn from the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg
meanwhile warned
that some South African politicians were using the removal
of all foreigners
from the country as a “dangerous political tool.” He
explained that
xenophobic tensions were still high as a result of such
politicking, warning
that “we are sitting on a ticking time bomb.” Verryn
said that official
promises to remove foreigners from South Africa were
adding fuel for more
xenophobic attacks.
In recent days at least two Zimbabwean men have been
killed in unrelated,
violent attacks by South Africans. One man in Polokwane
was reportedly
stoned to death by a mob of South Africans who also
vandalised the homes of
other foreigners in the area. At the same time
disturbing footage of a mob
beating a young Zimbabwean man to death in the
Diepsloot informal settlement
has also been released on the internet. The
man’s shack was also burned to
the ground.
Verryn explained that the
number of Zimbabweans entering South Africa was
increasing, because of fears
of pre-election violence at the hands of ZANU
PF back home. He agreed that
the influx of the Zim nationals was an
indictment of the severity of the
Zimbabwean crisis, calling South Africa’s
decision to resume deportations at
this point “traumatic and dangerous.”
Essar
to Process Zimbabwe Iron Ore If It Decides to Export
http://www.businessweek.com/
June 14, 2011, 11:28 AM
EDT
By Brian Latham
June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Essar
Africa Holdings Ltd., a unit of Essar Group,
said it will process Zimbabwean
iron ore before exporting it through a
terminal it may build in
Mozambique.
The company is considering building iron ore and coal export
terminals in
the Mozambican port city of Beira, it said in a statement
e-mailed to
Bloomberg today. In March, Essar agreed to buy control of the
steel and
mining assets of the state-owned Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Co.,
known as Zisco.
“Mozambique is the logical exit point for any exports of
iron ore from
Zimbabwe,” Essar said. “Any export of iron ore from mines in
Zimbabwe would
only happen after beneficiation to add value.”
Essar
is considering a 20 million metric-ton-per-year iron ore terminal in
Mozambique to ship surplus production from Zimabwbe’s Ripple Creek and
Mwanesi mines, Firdhose Coovadia, Essar’s director for the Middle East and
Africa, said at a June 8 iron ore conference in Cape Town. A coal terminal
of the same size may also be built, he said.
There is no agreement to
build a slurry pipeline from Zimbabwe to
Mozambique, Mumbai-based Essar
said. Earlier Securities Africa, a research
company, had said in a note to
clients that a slurry pipeline would be
built.
Essar took control of
54 percent of the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Corp. March
9 in a deal worth
about $750 million, according to Zimbabwe’s industry
minister Welshman
Ncube. Essar will have 80 percent of a venture that will
operate the mines,
the company said today.
--With assistance from Antony Sguazzin in
Johannesburg. Editors: Antony
Sguazzin, Philip Sanders
'Gono
hotel' woman threatened
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Xolisani Ncube, Staff Writer
Tuesday, 14 June
2011 18:38
HARARE - Veronica Duro, the woman at the centre of a hotel
saga that has
sucked in central bank boss Gideon Gono, says she has been
“threatened” to
withdraw her case to reverse the property’s sale to the
wealthy governor.
In a fresh High Court application on Friday, the
43-year-old nurse aid said
she had to reinstate her case after withdrawing
it on June 6 due to the
alleged threats from family-appointed executor and
lawyer Tinashe Zenda, as
well as some beneficiaries of the late Micah Duro’s
estate.
Duro was a rich Zimbabwean businessman with Zambian roots, who
owned several
properties in the country, including the disputed Kamfinsa
Hotel in Harare’s
Greendale suburb.
Zenda, Gono’s farming business
Lunar Chickens (Private) Limited and master
of the High Court are listed as
second, third and fourth respondents in the
matter involving the late
businessman’s inherited assets.
“I want to highlight to this honourable
court that on Monday, 6 June 2011
around 1230hrs… l was pressurised by
second respondent and other
beneficiaries into involuntarily withdrawing
that urgent chamber application
(case no HC5146/11),” she said in court
papers lodged late last week.
Micah Duro, a farmer-cum-hotelier died in
2009 and a group of his relatives,
and children have been wrangling over his
multi-million dollar estate.
In the papers, Veronica claims Zenda called
her several times and threatened
her with unspecified actions – leading to a
temporary withdrawal of the
case.
“At 16:30hrs second respondent
called me with a harsh voice to say (that) l
was wasting my time going
before this honourable court. At 17:41 hours, he
phoned again and… in a
harsher voice to say that he had been called that
evening to third
respondent’s offices where he was told he had to refund his
deposit,” she
deposed in her explosive affidavit.
Furthermore, Gono was “no longer
interested in a disputed property and did
not want to attend the court
hearing”, as he was also not happy with the
coverage that the issue was
attracting.
“If this matter appears in the media, third respondent was
going to look for
me and that l would not like what would happen to me.
Before threatening to
deal with me ‘accordingly’, as he put it, second
respondent also asked me if
l wanted him killed by third respondent. I could
not understand this
statement,” Duro added.
As revealed by Daily News
last week, Zenda stands accused of double-selling
the Harare hotel to Gono
and Duro, who claims to have been given the rights
to purchase the
once-popular hotel by the clan in the aftermath of the death
of her father,
Micah.
The lawyer also stands accused of fiddling with time and numbers
to
frustrate Veronica’s plans by inviting her to Zambia, and ever since the
transaction touched off a storm last week Gono has since balked at the messy
affair or deal by annulling the contract.
Repeated efforts to secure
comment from Zenda failed yesterday, as his
numbers were
unreachable.
Last week, he told Daily News, though, that the intended sale to
Gono was
above board and Veronica’s rush to the courts was an attempt to
tarnish the
RBZ chief’s image.
Under the controversial deal, Gono had
paid a US$150 000 deposit for the
half-million dollar-valued Greendale
property – through Larob Real Estate –
with three subsequent installments
due by August this year.
However, after the first legal complaint earlier
this month and subsequent
noise, Gono cancelled the agreement on June
8.
In both instances – of buying the 6 490 square- metre-hotel and
revoking the
contract – Gono personally signed the paper work or
documentation.
Horror
fire: Search on for missing relatives
http://www.herald.co.zw
Monday, 13 June 2011 21:45
By
Felex Share and Peter Matambanadzo
HARARE residents with missing relatives
yesterday flo-cked to Harare Central
Hospital in a desperate search for
their loved ones they suspect could have
been burnt after a fuel tanker
exploded in Sunningdale at the weekend.
Three people were killed while 16
others sustained serio-us burns when the
tanker from which they were
siphoning petrol burst into flames following an
accident.
Although
there were three confirmed deaths as of last night, police and
members of
the public suspect more people could have been burnt to ashes.
Sunningdale
residents insist more than 20 people were draining fuel from the
tanker when
it blew up.
Police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau yesterday said
investigations were
still in progress.
"The number still stands at three
deaths and our officers attended the scene
and couldn't find any indication
in the debris. However, we are continuing
with our investigations and we
still urge those who are missing their
relatives - whom they think might
have died in the inferno - to come forward
and inform us," he
said.
On the cause of the fire, Insp Sabau said:"We are still wai-ting
for a
report from the Fire Brigade and once they are through, we will let
you
know."
The Herald was at Harare Central Hospital yesterday du-ring
the afternoon
visit hour and saw several people looking for missing
relatives.
"Since yesterday, we are still trying to locate my son and we
have been to
Parirenyatwa Hospital and he is not there and here (Harare
Central Hospital)
we are being told that they don't have such a
patient.
"Chances are high that he could have perished in the fire," said Mrs
Thelma
Runesu.
Another sobbing woman, who identified herself as Mrs
Zhakata said: "We have
been everywhere. He (her son) went to the scene with
our neighbours with
their buckets and I am still to figure out the hospital
where he is
admitted."
Two other people who declined to be named said
they failed to locate their
missing relatives among the injured. The
relatives are also facing a
challenge identifying their loved ones because
some of them were badly
burnt.
A sombre atmosphere engulfed
Sunningdale yesterday afternoon as residents
mourned the three who perished
in the fire while others pondered over the
fate of their missing
relatives
Scores of residents were still thronging the scene of the fatal
accident to
see the remnants of the tanker.
Scrap metal dealers could
be seen scouring the scene in search of scrap as
residents watched.
The
father of one of the victims, Mr Noble Mukunyadze, who lost his
23-year-old
son Canaan, was still in a state of shock.
Mr Mukunyadze said his son might
have been saved if police had swiftly
responded.
"This disaster could
have been prevented if the police who are only less
than a kilometre away
from the accident site had attended quickly.
"They did not do so and only
arrived after 30 minutes later and people who
took the opportunity to siphon
fuel as a result were killed in the inferno,"
he said.
He said his
son would be buried in Mhondoro tomorrow.
Another victim Lawrence Goro had
already been taken to his rural home in Mt
Darwin.
In an interview
yesterday, the owner of the fuel tanker, Mr Martin Dzvimbo,
said the driver
was not feeling well.
"I am going to visit him tonight (yesterday) and I
will get back to you
tomorrow morning," said a rueful Mr Dzvimbo.
He said
the driver sustained internal injuries in the accident.
The driver tried
to restrain the people from stealing the petrol from the
accident scene,
warning it would blow up anytime, but they would have none
of it and even
threatened him.
Mr Dzvimbo said his tanker was carrying 35 000 litres of
petrol that was
being delivered to service station in
Norton.
Environmental Management Agency (EMA) officials urged haulage
truck drivers
to abide by the regulations that compel them to drive between
6 am and 6pm
when visibility will be good.
EMA spokesperson, Mr Steady
Kangata, warmed people not to rush and loot
goods at accident scenes as some
of them will be flammable, corrosive, while
others cause diseases such as
cancer.
The inferno also reduced a commuter omnibus and a private car to
shells.
The occupants of the two vehicles, however, escaped unhurt.
ZUJ
fury over Mutambara outburst
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
14/06/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Union of Journalists has condemned Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur
Mutambara for allegedly using “intolerant and intemperate”
language while
answering questions from the NewsDay newspaper.
The
newspaper reported on June 13 that Mutambara had accused its journalists
of
“writing rubbish” after he was asked about an apparent snub by SADC
leaders
who refused to recognise him as MDC leader.
“Who told you to call me?,”
Mutambara was quoted as shouting at a NewsDay
journalist, before adding:
“Tell your editor to stop publishing rubbish.
Your paper is writing
rubbish.”
The newspaper said earlier, Mutambara had accused it of “writing
stupid
stories”.
But ZUJ, which recently criticised Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, Mines
Minister Obert Mpofu and Information Communication
Technology Minister
Nelson Chamisa over attacks on journalists, said
Mutambara's outburst made
its membership “uneasy”.
“The DPM has been
very intolerant against journalists over the last few days
while being
interviewed over his participation in the just-ended
Extraordinary Summit of
SADC Heads of State and Government in Johannesburg,
South Africa,” ZUJ
secretary general Foster Dongozi said in a statement.
“The Union would
like to condemn in very strong terms the DPM’s abusive
statements and call
on him to use language which contributes towards peace
and national healing
in Zimbabwe.”
ZUJ said it feared attacks by politicians on journalists
had the capacity to
“endanger the lives of journalists as their supporters
may take it as a cue
to abuse, harass or assault journalists, newspaper
vendors and media
organisations.”
Mutambara, who has been battling to
regain control of the MDC party now led
by Welshman Ncube, was invited to
the SADC summit in his capacity as Deputy
Prime Minister and not leader of
the party.
Mutambara had recently purported to have fired Ncube, despite
giving up the
party leadership at a congress in January.
Meanwhile,
ZUJ also launched an attack on Harare councillor Joyce Kariwo who
reportedly
accused journalists of staying until late at council meetings “in
order to
eat councillors’ food”.
“We reject and condemn Clr Kariwo’s statements
and would like to draw to her
attention that the only reason why journalists
attend council meetings until
late is because they would be on assignment
and are dedicated professionals
seeking to provide quality service under
extremely difficult working
conditions,” Dongozi said.
Legendary
broadcaster Hilton Mambo dies
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
14 June
2011
Veteran broadcaster and music producer Hilton ‘Dr Bobo’ Mambo has
died at
the age of 60. Mambo, whose career in music spanned 40 years, had
been ill
for sometime and died at the Avenues clinic in Harare on Monday.
The funeral
is being arranged by his family in Hatfield, Harare. Hilton’s
colleagues and
friends have expressed shock and grief over his
death.
Mambo, easily recognised by his distinctly husky voice, had a
lengthy radio
career with a devoted following recruited during his jazz and
blues stints.
Many tributes are being paid to the man who started his
career as a sound
engineer with Blackberry productions, which produced
programs for the then
Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation in the
1970’s.
Leading music critic Vivian Maravanyika told SW Radio Africa that
during his
time at Blackberry Mambo worked with high profile personalities
like Ishmail
Kadungure, the late Wellington Mbofana, Admire Taderera, John
Matinde and
the late Josh Makawa.
‘He gained fame when he played the
character Dr Bobo, a villain in a radio
play called Enemy of the Bad, in the
mid 1970’s. That name stuck to him
until his death but he will also be
remembered for being a sound engineer
for the road show, (surf show-pick a
box), which was a hit in the early 1980’s.
He also worked on Jarzin man,
another popular radio program hosted by
Taderere,’ Maravanyika
said.
Born and bred in Mbare, as a recording engineer Mambo also worked
on
projects with Zimbabwe’s music greats, including Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver
Mtukudzi, Zexie Manatsa and Simon Chimbetu.
After Independence he
became a very popular presenter on ZBC’s Radios 1 and
3 where he presented
weekly jazz and blues shows and as a singer he also
released a couple of
singles and sang with several bands on Harare’s music
scene.
Described as a warm and friendly man, Mambo had recently been
living in the
UK where he was a weekly guest DJ at a pub called the Pied
Horse in Slough.
Maravanyika said; ‘He was well versed about music in
Zimbabwe since he was
in his teens. He would tell you about every musician
who has ever recorded
an album in the country. This man was a great
broadcaster and musician who
will be sorely missed by his fans’.
Were
these people at the same meeting?
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Zimbabwe’s neighbors, long accused of
handling the festering Zimbabwe crisis
with kid gloves, put an unusual
amount of public pressure on Mugabe at the
Livingstone summit to halt the
political violence, intimidation and arrests
that had surged since his party
began agitating for elections in recent
months.
14.06.1109:28am 2
0
The Zimbabwean Harare
After meeting on Zimbabwe’s deteriorating
political climate, the presidents
of South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique
issued a damning communique
expressing “grave concern” about the country’s
increasingly polarized
environment, one that human rights groups have
attributed to Mugabe’s party,
Zanu PF.Mugabe was apoplectic with fury after
the damning communique,
charging that SADC could not dictate but mediate in
the long festering
Zimbabwe political stand-off.
The
extraordinary summit in Sandton on Sunday was expected to adopt the
report.
But there are now conflicting statements, with Zanu PF saying the
Livingstone report was noted and not adopted and the MDC-T saying the Troika
communique was endorsed. Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
said: "The Summit went on very well, very, very well. Summit only noted the
outcome of Livingstone, they did not endorse, Summit noted. And as you know
in diplomatic parlance, you know what ‘noting' means? It was noted, it was
not endorsed."
But Prof Ncube said it was unfortunate and regrettable
that some parties had
chosen to grand stand and politick by trying to spin
and deliberately
falsify the facts to suit their goals and egos. "There was
the narrative to
the report and the decisions made in the report," Ncube
said. "What was
'noted' at the SADC summit was the factual foundation or
narrative of the
Livingstone Troika report. This is because Zanu PF objected
to the fact that
they were the only ones that perpetrated violence. This
however was
overtaken by the facilitators report in which both Zanu PF and
MDC-T were
deemed to have been perpetrators of violence by the facilitators
findings.
The facilitators report as I said before was itself accepted and
endorsed.
That said the decisions of the Livingstone Troika report are
not in dispute
and were clearly endorsed." Ncube said the SADC summit agreed
to a review of
the implementation of the GPA, the drawing up of a roadmap to
elections, the
setting up of a three person panel to monitor with JOMIC the
implementation
of the GPA and for the parties to desist from violence,
intimidation and
hate speech.
"Therefore for all practical purposes
the decisions of the summit have been
endorsed," Ncube said. Ncube said the
election roadmap must contain clear
signposts. He said the constitution
making process must be completed, a
report written and negotiated, a
referendum passed to Parliament and
gazetted to become law.
On
electoral reform, Ncube said there is already an amendment agreed to the
Electoral Act which must be implemented.
"This will deal with matters
such as how to handle electoral violence, the
compilation of a new voters
roll based on polling stations, auditing the
counting and tallying of votes
by an independent firm," Ncube said. "Results
of the elections must be
announced within 5 days."
He said the roadmap must operationalise the
Human Rights Bill, which was
gazetted on Friday. Ncube said there was an
agreement on media reform and
implementation. "This includes the appointment
of a new Board for the ZBC, a
new board of trustees for the Mass Media Trust
which includes the Herald
newspaper and other state newspapers, the issue of
radio and TV licences to
new applicants."
Ncube said parties were
also urged to strictly apply the the Rule of Law and
fully recognise freedom
of assembly. The MDC-T said contrary to the
assertions by Zanu PF, the
Executive Secretary of SADC Tomaz Salomao
reiterated, relying on article 2
of the founding document on defence and
security that SADC has a mandate to
intervene in the internal affairs of a
troubled member state such as
Zimbabwe.
"We welcome the unequivocal adoption of the idea of a clear
roadmap to free
and fair elections," the MDC-T said in a statement. "This
involves the
completion of all the steps necessary for the holding of free
and fair
election including the finalisation of the constitutional reform
process,
and the removal of all state-sponsored violence. Therefore this
election
should be held in accordance with the SADC Principles and
Guidelines
Governing Democratic Elections. We are happy that the Summit
emphasized on
the need of clear timelines to be added to this roadmap, which
must be ready
for adoption by the summit in August 2011.
"We
reiterate that as the MDC, we are and have always been ready for free
and
fair elections. We are also thrilled and exhilarated by the order given
by
the Summit that all outstanding issues must be implemented by August 2011
to
create an environment of peace, security and free political activity in
Zimbabwe."
Artistic Zimbabwe goes Venice
http://www.rnw.nl/
Walking
into the Zibabwean exhibition in Venice the first thing I notice is that there
is no stone sculpture. It was what I was expecting and its absence makes me pay
more attention to the artwork that has come all the way from
Africa.
By Sylvia
Smith, Venice
Four Zibabwean
artists are currently showcasing their art at the prestigious Venice Biennale in
northern Italy. This is the first independent African pavilion to make an
appearance at the event which will run until the end of November. The theme of
the 54th Venice Biennale Illumination revealed in a new light the latest
developments in contemporary art in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean exhibition Seeing
Ourselves puts on display the talents of four Zimbabwean artists who showed work
in a variety of media from photography and painting to
installation.
According to
Doreen Sibanda, the curator of the exhibition in Venice and Director of the
National Gallery in Zimbabwe, the artists represent the contemporary side of
what the country is producing. "After Independence we felt the need to train
young artists in additonal media such as textiles, video and photography,"she
explains. "So this have been an evolution that has been going on for the last 20
to 30 years." She added that she hopes that this exhibition will challenge any
preconceived ideas about Zimbabwe and is just the start of putting the country's
talent on an international platform.
At the opening of
Seeing Ourselves Ghanaian artists El Anatsui commented that he had expected to
see turned stone sculpture for which Zimbabwe is very well known. "It is a big
surprise and a treat to see the high quality of work that has been brought
here," he said. "There are works by an older generation such as Tapfuma Gutsa as
well as a young unknown."
Metophor
for struggle
In the first room
Dreadlocked Tapfuma Gutsa showed an installation on the floor. Part football
pitch, part chess board, with hats and helmets instead of kings and queens, the
piece was a metaphor about the struggle between villagers and the military and
through the formations of the hats showed which 'team' was likely to
win.
Tapfuma Gutsa says
that he tries to express real issues such as inequality within society. “Most of
the work in this exhibition is really gritty", he told me. "It’s also heartfelt.
As far as my work goes nobody tried to influence what I was making. I did what I
wanted to and I am ready to stand by it." In an adjoining room he showed a
business suit made of tar and feathers - a reference to the corporate rip off
going on all over Africa.
More
chances for artists
Photoghrapher Calvin Dondo chose to explore the dynamics
of mixed race families in Europe. His works hung round a room showing young,
black children as well as teenagers who were living with white families in
Southern Germany, Switzerland and France. "I started this project on
adoptionlong before Madonna adopted those children from Malawi," he explains.
"My work focusses on issues of identity, citizenship, migration and love -
because to adopt you really have to love."
Young and
up-coming painter Misheck Masamvu, wearing trendy glasses was sitting on a bench
he had made out of metal and rubber. But the main focus of his work were
paintings on the walls. The vividly coloured abstract acylics explore social
hierarchy. He hopes that the Venice exhibition will provide more chances for
interaction and exchange between Zimbabwean and international artists. "The
recognition fo Zibabwean art is long overdue he declares. "This will push us
into the forefront of peoples' minds."
London
next?
With the long promised
appearance of an exhibtion from the Democratic Republic of Congo failing to
materialise, the Zimbabwean artists carried the flag for sub-saharan Africa.
With a visit from the curators from Britain’s Tate gallery to look at the
artwork there is a chance that Venice won’t be the last stop for this
exhibition.